Japan Will Turn Ablaze!

Various

11: Letters and Cable to the Bahá’ís of Japan in the Early Days, 1922–1931

[Letter of January 26, 1922]

My well-beloved brethren and sisters in ‘Abdu’l-Bahá:—

Despondent and sorrowful, though I be in these darksome days,
yet whenever I call to mind the hopes our departed Master so
confidently reposed in the friends in that Far-Eastern land, hope revives
within me and drives away the gloom of His bereavement. As His
attendant and secretary for well-nigh two years after the termination
of the Great War, I recall so vividly the radiant joy that transfigured
His Face wherever I opened before Him your supplications as well
as those of Miss Agnes Alexander. What promises He gave us all
regarding the future of the Cause in that land at the close of almost
every supplication I read to Him! Let me state, straightway, the most
emphatic, the most inspiring of them all. These are His very words,
that still keep ringing in my ears;—“Japan will turn ablaze! Japan is
endowed with a most remarkable capacity for the spread of the Cause
of God! Japan, with (another country whose name He stated but bade
us conceal it for the present) will take the lead in the spiritual
reawakening of the peoples and nations that the world shall soon
witness!” On another occasion,—how vividly I recall it!—as He
reclined on His chair, with eyes closed with bodily fatigue, He waved
His hand and uttered vigorously and cheerfully these words in the
presence of His friends:—“Here we are seated calm, quiet and
inactive, but the Hand of the Unseen is ever active and triumphant in
lands, even as distant as Japan.”

My dear and steadfast friends! Now if ever is the time for you
and for us to show, by our unity, service, steadfastness and courage,
the spirit that the Master has throughout His lifetime so laboriously,
so persistently kindled in our hearts. Now is the time for us to prove
ourselves worthy of His love for us, His trust in us and His hopes for
us. Japan, He said, will turn ablaze. Let us not, in any way, whatsoever,
retard the realization of His promise. Nay, let us hasten, through
our service, cooperation and efforts the advent of this glorious day.

The bereaved Ladies of the Holy Household, receive with
comfort and refreshing gladness any news that may come to them from
that wonderful and distant land. They all know what the Master has
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graciously spoken about the future of the Cause in that land. They
all expect from it a rapid transformation, a spiritual transformation
even more sudden and startling than its material progress and advancement,
for the Power of God can achieve wonders still greater
than those the brilliant minds of the Japanese can achieve. This they
firmly believe, for more than once, the Master has spoken of the
spiritual potentialities hidden in the nature of these capable people.
They all await with eagerness the joyful-tidings that your letters to
them shall bear in future.

We all wish so much to know more about you, about your little
rising Bahá’í community, your number, your meetings, your activities,
your difficulties, your plans, your distribution all over Japan and the
neighbouring islands. We shall all pray for you most fervently and
in a special manner at all the three Hallowed Shrines and beseech the
Master, under whose wings we are all, to guide you, to sustain you in
your work for Him.

I shall never fail to send you all the news I receive from different
parts of the Bahá’í world that you may know of the efforts and
triumphs our brethren, the loved ones of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, are achieving
and will achieve after Him.

Persia, the leading nation in the Bahá’í world, today will, I am
confident, through its centre, Tihran, communicate with you all, that
the East and West, even as our Beloved One has so much wished it,
may become even as one.

The letter our dear sister, Miss Agnes Alexander, had written to
Mr. Fujita, gave us such a joy and was read at the sorrowful gathering
of His friends, in the very room He used to receive His friends and
meet them every night.